[TteFAboB]

Got it, did 3 play-throughs so far.

The gameplay is so-so. Not bad, but far from great, though in this day and age I suppose being above awful, bug-ridden and unplayable is worth a praise...

The story, however, is a most impressive display of RPG implementation. Every action has a consequence, and they've got every little corner covered. However you play, you will get one coherent storyline, from start to finish; a believable character, a believable story. If your actions are insane and incoherent, they got that covered as well and the world will react with surprise and confusion.

In this criteria it beats Mass Effect and any other Bioware game by a large, nearly immeasurable margin (including Dragon Age). Every little thing you do in Alpha Protocol matters and has an effect, unlike the effects of your actions in Mass Effect, which aren't massive at all, besides from the few main decisions in the main quest line. And by effect I don't mean only character reactions, but entirely different missions, paths, encounters.

So I must urge all you story or RPG players out there to try Alpha Protocol to the end, not for the gameplay, which is quite poor, but to see, most refreshingly, quality story-telling in a game. If it had proper quality gameplay as well this would have been the RPG of the century.